Brilliant is an overstatement, of course.

Just a quickie. I’ve created a new category in Furl!, remember. I’ve marked it private, but there is no reason one couldn’t create a public topic as well. When I have an idea I Furl it. It doesn’t matter what site I’m at, it just gets put in the remember category as reminder accessible from anywhere on the internet.

I thought of this while watching a commercial about a product that keeps your car cool. It is a fan that attaches to the top of your window and it is solar powered. Brilliant! Use solar power, exclusively, for things that need electricity when it’s hot! Imagine the energy saved if all air conditioning units and industrial cooling fans used solar power exclusively for their power. That’s my piece for now, definately a topic for expanded discussion.

Here’s a simple idea that is guaranteed to keep you safe from email Phishing attacks.

Don’t reply to, click on any link in, or use the contact information included in any email pertaining to personal, confidential, and/or financial information.

If you are concerned by the contents of the email then visit the site by entering a known URL directly into your browser, sending an email to a known address you have used before, or call the customer/contact number you have used before.

Civility, this idea, if implemented by everyone, would change the world. Most of you know what being civil is so I won’t go into positive examples. Instead I will share some things that shouldn’t be done because sometimes I think the people doing these things don’t realize how un-civil they are being.

Don’t tailgate.

Don’t pass a long line of cars on the right and cut in. We all want to go faster, you are not special. Besides, not only are you being un-civil, you are endanger the lives of others.

Don’t pass a long line of cars waiting to turn at a light (this is particularly common on busy off ramps) and cut in at the bottom of the line.

When there are two lanes to turn left, don’t put yourself in the left lane if you know you need to be in the right lane after the turn.

If someone is requesting assistance in a forum for the first time on a subject don’t assume they haven’t tried to find the answer on their own and don’t provide a condescending answer chastising them for finding the other posts you know exist.

Don’t ask for civility then be un-civil, like drmike the WordPress forum moderator (yes he’s the straw that broke the camels back and got me to finally write about this. As a moderator he is a public figure and therefore open to public criticism).

Don’t think technology is infallible and assume users are stupid (this goes out to the IT industry “professionals”).

Don’t assume you know the answer when you haven’t listened to all the details.

While watching the several “learning” stations (Discovery, Science Channel, etc.) I found that many of the experts being interviewed were using Macintosh computers. These are the top biologists, archeologists, mathmeticians, physicists, etc, etc, in their fields and I think Apple should capitalize on the opinions of these powerhouse brains.

I have recently completed an article comparing DSL to Cable, and Cable users are paying way too much for the service. Compared to DSL, Cable is at least 613% less cost effective. DSL vs Cable: DSL wins.

Here’s a brilliant idea for everyone, don’t pay any attention to IPTV. It’s worthless. In fact it’s downright damaging. Cable and Satellite, even with all there shortcomings, do a fine job of delivering video content. All that IPTV will accomplish is the creation of confusion, incompatibility, bandwith clogs and greater expense. We as consumers have the opportunity to stop this nightmare before it begins. Just say no. Don’t trial it, don’t request information about it, don’t buy it. Let Cable and Telcos stick to what they do best. Which brings me to the flip side.

I am sure this is a huge money maker, if I had the time, massive funding and access to a huge pool of brilliant minds. But I don’t so this one is for you, Google. I hope it helps the internet community as much as I think it will.

I propose a CSS class tag registry. The seed of the idea is, allow people to register a unique, and private, class tag which they use in all of their HTML documents. They will also register the domain(s) associated with the tag. Finally, they can visit a report page that lists the domains containing the tags that are not associated in the registry.

I realize their are a lot of technical issues, and ways around the protection, but it certainly goes a long way to stop the casual steal and post without credit bozos.